Ysperklamm

The Ysper cuts down through granite in the southern Waldviertel to reach the Danube, and where it does the water has worked a narrow gorge with pools, chutes and a fall of about thirty metres. A path was built through it in 1884 by the local alpine section - which makes it one of the earliest gorge walks opened in Lower Austria - and it still runs the same way: timber stairs, galleries pinned to the rock and bridges crossing and recrossing the water, climbing something over a hundred metres from bottom to top over roughly a kilometre and a half. The rock is granite rather than limestone, so the gorge is darker and mossier than the karst klammen further west, and the whole thing takes an hour or so with the walk back down the forest road.

What you actually see

• A granite gorge - darker and mossier than the limestone klammen elsewhere.
• Timber stairs and galleries - the 1884 route pinned to the rock walls.
• A thirty-metre fall - the main drop partway up the gorge.
• Pools and chutes - the Ysper working its way down through the rock.

When to go

May to October; closed in winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The route is closed in winter and after heavy rain or storm damage. Boards are wet and slippery throughout. The climb is continuous and there is no shortcut back except the forest road.

Nearby

Melk Abbey and the Wachau are south across the Danube.